[abcha0s]

What makes the perfect tank? Ask a dozen people and I’m sure that you’ll get a dozen opinions.

I think it’s important to start with a set of guidelines for making decisions throughout the build. Any choice can be compared against these principals and it should either meet or exceed the minimums. It’s also important that there is some consideration to the overall cost basically ruling out things like Red Dragon pumps for my return lines.

Mechanics
• Extremely quiet – silent if possible
• Low power consumption
• Low maintenance – automate everything possible
• Redundancy and failure planning

Lighting and Flow
• Ridiculously High flow.
• Intense lighting but with consideration to heat transfer and power costs.

Filtration
• Live rock (about 1 pound per gallon) – Should be interesting without being dominant
• Shallow sand bed
• Powerful skimming
• Carbon and GFO as needed
• NP Biopellets or whatever comes next

Livestock
• Mixed reef. SPS dominated.
• High bio-load

Impact on house
• The system should be essentially self contained and not require any renovations to install or tear down. I have access to the ceiling and the furnace room for additional equipment, but building a fish room is not feasible.
• Impact on relative humidity must be managable.